By the way do you believe that Mayo or for that matter any clinic is interested in helping you stay healthy, think hard.

I am no God. I have nothing to do with science or biology or health care.

You may have your reasons to believe that you are sick because Mayo is telling all truth and nothing else.

My personal reasons to think otherwise are –

My height is 165 cm. I am 52 now. I weighed 74-75 kg. I wanted to lose about 10-15 kg weight. Since 2005 I tried my best to lose weight. Restricting diet, sports, exercising, increased fibre intake. Believe me I did not lose even 1 gram of weight. I was always apprehensive of cutting down on sugar and carbs. But finally 2 years back I decided to take the plunge. I cut down on my sugar intake. I continued for about 18 months on low sugar.

Results – I gained 5 kg weight. I was depressed. I had cervical after about 6 months of restricting sugar. I had constipation, Insomnia and generally life did not feel that good. I had nerve pains as well.

Again I increased my sugar intake. Now it took time to build up my sugar capacity. Now I did not like sugar that much. I kept pushing myself. My neck is perfect, confidence has come. Insomnia is gone, My mind working has improved.

I would recommend every one here to read wiki article on Dr. Atkin who recommended low carb diets to lose weight. He gained 17 kg weight after writing his books on low carb diet. He weighed 117 kg when he died of history of heart attacks.

Since childhood I have been hearing that high intake of sugar is linked to weight gain and all sorts of Health problems.

My personal experience is that sugar is extremely important for good health. And yes I am talking about added sugar. Yes there is a point in limiting the added or natural sugar. But avoiding sugar like plague is too bad.

95% of the educated people avoid added sugar. I also tried giving up sugar for 6 to 9 months. My personal experiences are –

Early black outs while playing sports

Lack of quality sleep and Insomnia

Anxiety

Cervical pains

Constipation

And most shocking weight gain of 6 to 7 kg

Sugar seemed to give substantial relief to schizophrenia and depression patients as well

There are scientific studies which blame low intake of sugar for heart diseases.

Now look at what the most credible web sites in the world say about added sugar

The American Heart Association recommends limiting sugar consumption to no more than half of your daily discretionary calories. Women should have about 100 discretionary calories daily, which means the limit should be no more than 6 teaspoons of added sugar daily. Men are allotted 150 daily discretionary calories, meaning no more than 9 teaspoons of added sugars each day. Similarly, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 recommends no more than 5 to 15 percent of daily calories come from added sugars and solid fats.